Immaculate Conception

[R_C]

antiochianarch.org.au/orthodox-view-on-Immaculate-Conception.aspx

Orthodox view on Immaculate Conception

…]The Orthodox Church has kept alive the original understanding of the early Church as regards “original sin.” The early Church did not understand “original sin” as having anything to do with transmitted guilt but with transmitted mortality.

…] Taken at face value, the Western doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is seen by the Orthodox as separating the Mother of God from the rest of the human race.

If true, this would have made it impossible for Christ to become truly man, because Mary would therefore not be subject to the same conditions of humanity as those for whom Christ had become incarnate in order to save.

Mary is human, and through her, God became fully human as well.

Can someone please kindly explain how is this orthodox faith?

Does this claim not basically imply that the “fully human” nature of Christ also had the stain of original sin?

How is the stain of original sin (or the absence of sanctifying grace) a requirement of full, true humanity?

And how does this not contradict the Church Fathers - ex.:

Origen (“This Virgin Mother of the Only-begotten of God is called Mary, worthy of God, immaculate of the immaculate”)

Hippolytus (“He was the ark formed of incorruptible wood. For by this is signified that His tabernacle was exempt from defilement and corruption”)

Ephraim the Syrian (“You alone and your Mother are more beautiful than any others, for there is neither blemish in you nor any stains upon your Mother. …] Most holy Lady, Mother of God, alone most pure in soul and body, alone exceeding all perfection of purity …my Lady most holy, all-pure, all-immaculate, all-stainless, all-undefiled, all-incorrupt, all-inviolate spotless robe of Him Who clothes Himself with light as with a garment . . . flower unfading, purple woven by God, alone most immaculate.”)

Germanus of Costantinople ("You are she who, as it is written, appears in beauty, and your virginal body is all holy, all chaste, entirely the dwelling place of God, so that it is henceforth completely exempt from dissolution into dust. ")

 

[Nine_Two]

antiochianarch.org.au/orthodox-view-on-Immaculate-Conception.aspx

Can someone please kindly explain how is this orthodox faith?

Does this claim not basically imply that the “fully human” nature of Christ also had the stain of original sin?

How is the stain of original sin (or the absence of sanctifying grace) a requirement of full, true humanity?

And how does this not contradict the Church Fathers - ex.:

This thread will likely be moved, but I’ll try to answer your questions.

But your issue seems to be you’re superimposing a Latin understanding on top of what you’re reading about what Orthodoxy teaches, leading to your confusion.

Regarding those quotes you made, the Church does teach the Theotokos was without sin - immaculate. What we don’t teach is that her birth was somehow different then anyone elses. We do not teach a transmission of sin through birth which therefore makes every birth immaculate, so to speak.

Regarding Christ. Yes, in his humanity he inherited the curse of the ancestral sin - this is why the temptation is the desert is a significant event in his life. Had he not received the curse it would not have been much of a temptation.

The stain is not a requirement for humanity, so to speak, one would be human without it, perhaps more human - as we shall see after the Judgement, but the argument is that it would take her away from what we know as the human experience. This makes her both superhuman, and makes it much harder to relate to who - or what - she was/is.

In my mind, the immaculate conception seems like an idea that was created to answer a very pressing question created by the Augustinian idea of Original Sin. As you say, if we use his definition, then logically Jesus inherited that sinful nature, and that is theologically erroneous. Therefore something has to separate him from that…
Still, I prefer the heterodox Catholic answer to the heretical Calvinist.